GPS Tracking ROI

Here’s an interesting report from the UK that shows that telemetry, usually GPS powered, is really catching on.

Analyst firm Berg Insight found 2.2 million passenger cars in Europe had an on-board telematics device at the end of last year. Stolen vehicle tracking is the primary telematics application, followed by automatic emergency calling, driver assistance and motor insurance telematics.
“After many years of slow adoption, we now see that the market is entering a growth phase,” said Tobias Ryberg, senior analyst at Berg Insight. “The penetration rate is still below 1% of the total car [registration], so there is a huge untapped potential.” full article here.

This is some good news for the GPS tracking market and for insurance companies … and all drivers who, after all, eventually pay the costs of all car thefts when they pay their insurance fees.

And I want to point out something here that the media often misses in these sort of reports … theft recovery systems, such as LoJack and GPS-based tracking systems which can aid in theft recovery as just one of their capabilities.

The LoJack-style systems are based on what is called a “bird dog” in the trade. If the vehicle goes missing police (the only authorized users) can drive around and pin point the location of the stolen asset if, and only if they have specialized receivers in their patrol cars. This is a big hidden cost and potential shortfall. On the plus side, Lojack and it’s technology colleagues do not depend on seeing the sky as GPS routinely does, so they can be used to find a stolen car say in an underground parking garage, which GPS really is useless for.

That being said, why would a person spend a significant amount of money to install a device that will only aid in stolen vehicle recovery? With GPS tracking you get:

• Proven savings on fuel … as much as 15% is common
• Proven savings on safety and even safety-related aspects such as workman’s comp claims
• Proven time accounting
• Proof that the vehicles went where they were supposed to and when
• Real-time alerts for maintenance problems to avoid high repair costs
• With the right system (networkcar.com is one) you can even automate the emissions testing process and avoid all that wasted time.

In short? theft recovery is great, but there is so much more that you can get, even as a private owner, with a true GPWS tracking system. Buy wisely, it’s your money.